Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 04/02/03
SUMMARY
Bayou Meto Schoolhouse is located on Arkansas Highway 276, just over one mile west of the intersection of Hwy 276 and Hwy 11 in Bayou Meto, Arkansas County. It is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for its association with the educational history of Bayou Meto and as one of the last remaining historic school buildings in the area. Due to deterioration and the change in facility use, exterior and interior modifications were made in 2001, thus making the Bayou Meto Schoolhouse ineligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
ELABORATION
The community of Bayou Meto, one-half mile west from the schoolhouse, is about two miles northwest from the bayou, Bayou Meto, a tributary of the Arkansas River. Farming was, and continues to be, the local profession in the area. Water from the bayou has always been important. The advent of rice farming caused several more families to settle there. The silt loam soil had a clay hardpan, which made it possible to grow rice. A rice crop requires a foot of water over four-acres. Thus, the proximity of the bayou, Bayou Meto, is of paramount importance. An irrigation company was formed in 1906 and many farmers irrigated their rice and raised families in the area. Consequently, the area had a need for a local school.
In 1932, when the Bayou Meto School building was constructed, there were 72 school districts in Arkansas County. All of the districts, except those in towns, were small rural one or two-room school buildings with one or two teachers. The Bayou Meto School District served white students. A separate school building, in Reydel, located east of Reydel, was provided for the African-American students in the area. Reydel also had a school building for white students. Each district maintained its own school board and tax base. The Bayou Meto Schoolhouse is one of only a few remaining usable structures that are still on the original site.
Some of the original school buildings in the county were moved and incorporated into homes, churches, and other uses. These school buildings are still present, but did not retain their identity. Sometime in the1950s, one school building was moved into DeWitt and is now used by the DeWitt Public Schools for the Head start program. The Reydel Schoolhouse that served the white students, remains on the original site and has been converted into a residence. The Reydel Schoolhouse that served the black students has been torn down. The Bayou Meto Schoolhouse, resting on its original site and retaining much of its original appearance, represents an era of educational facilities which preceded better roads and transportation, and before school consolidation.
The schools that were in close proximity of the Bayou Meto Schoolhouse are listed below, along with the distance in miles by road from the Bayou Meto Schoolhouse, and their fate. This list includes all schoolhouses near the Bayou Meto Schoolhouse in every direction, forming a circular pattern around it.
1. Brewer Schoolhouse - 7.0 miles West - abandoned and torn down in late 1970’s.
2. Hagler Schoolhouse - 3.0 miles North - converted into a rice drying facility, but accidentally burned in 1963.
3. Stillwell Schoolhouse - 8.0 miles Northwest - used for a community center and then torn down in 1980’s.
4. Turley Schoolhouse - 11.0 miles Northeast - abandoned and in ruins.
5. New Providence Schoolhouse - 6.0 miles Northeast - abandoned, then sold, and then moved to DeWitt and incorporated as part of a house sometime in 1950.
6. Johnson Schoolhouse - 5.0 miles Southeast - converted into a home and in 1965 demolished by a tornado.
7. Pampas Schoolhouse -5.5 miles South - abandoned, then sold, and then moved from site sometime in 1950.
8. Reydel Schoolhouse - 7.0 miles Southwest - sold and then converted into a residence in 1960’s.
9. Reydel Schoolhouse (African-American) - 7.5 miles Southwest - moved two miles West for farm use and then torn down in the 1980’s.
Historically, the impact of the Bayou Meto School District began long before the existing building was built. In 1932, when the Bayou Meto School building was constructed, the Bayou Meto School District #26 had been in existence, unofficially, and officially, since 1875. The school had been moved from a corncrib, to a house, and then to a church in the previous years. In the early 1900s, a one-room schoolhouse was built approximately one mile southwest of the present location. In 1927, Mr. and Mrs. O.C. Lumsden, Sr. donated an acre of land, the present location, with the stipulation that should the site no longer be used as a school, then ownership of the property would revert back to the family. The old one-room schoolhouse was moved to this site in 1927. In 1932, the old one-room schoolhouse, which no longer exists, was moved and the present building was constructed. From 1932 to 1949, the present school building contained two classrooms for grades 1-8. In 1949, the Bayou Meto School District was annexed to DeWitt, and grades 7-8 were moved to DeWitt. Grades 1-6 remained in the in Bayou Meto Schoolhouse until the 1959-1960 school year. This marked the end of the era for small rural schools with the consolidation of the remaining grades into the DeWitt School District.
When the school closed in 1960, the Lumsden Family used the schoolhouse for a residence for several years. It then became vacant for 25 years, but continued to be well cared for by the Lumsden Family. In 2001, Eddie and Pat Lumsden, and their son-in-law and daughter, Steve and Stephanie Bradley, converted the schoolhouse to a lodge and meeting place.
SIGNIFICANCE
The Bayou Meto Schoolhouse is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for its association with the educational history of Bayou Meto and as one of the last remaining historic school buildings in the area. Due to deterioration and the change in facility use, exterior and interior modifications were made in 2001, thus making the Bayou Meto Schoolhouse ineligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Assorted minutes books, ledgers, journals, and grade-books from the Arkansas County School Supervisors office, located at the Arkansas County Courthouse in DeWitt, Arkansas. The office is closed but the records are maintained and closely supervised.
Books of record of school district formations from 1881 to 1909 from the Arkansas County Clerk’s office, located at the Arkansas County Courthouse in DeWitt, Arkansas.
Book F1, page 178; Book H, page 175; Book H, page 113; Book L, page 301;
Book V, page 200
Book of record of property ownership and transfer from the Arkansas County Circuit Clerk’s office, located at the Arkansas County Courthouse in DeWitt, Arkansas.
Book 25, page 278
FOOTNOTES